Customer Reviews
MUST TRY HARDER to ARRANGE AND SIMPLIFY THE STORY - By: King Brosby, 30 Nov 2008 
This is a 900 page book, & a little bit of a struggle eg because Roy Jenkins resorts too often to complex phrases & foreign language references. There are too many occasions where the author uses tortuous sentence structure. There were/are no maps. There were many occasions where references to exact dates would have been appreciated.
At times I was learning vital things, eg Churchills rolein promoting naval rearmament pre WW1, or Churchills fears about the too low quality of British troopsin WW2, ... but I had to wade through a lot of text to find these nuggets. Too much detail is given about obscure bye-election & other parliamentary events. I think the authors opinions could have been expressed more briefly.
Excellent introduction to the great man - By: PhilosopherKing, 16 Nov 2008 
I never agreed very much with Roy Jenkins's political views & I was therefore wary of purchasing a book written by him on a man whom I greatly admire as I feared left wing revisionism. I was pleasantly surprised that Jenkins managed to put aside his political diffences to produce a fine biography of the national icon.
Much of the informationin the book, I had already picked up by means of television programmes, articlesin book reviews, history books & the like but the review of Churchill's writings encouraged me to read some of Churchill's own works. I therefore purchased "My Early Life" as well as Churchill's six volume "History of the Second World War" & read these afterwards as well.
The sheer courage, immense ability & vast energy of the man were outstanding.
I was bornin 1960 & hence didn't experience the war but I must confess that if I ever hear one of Churchill's wartime speeches being broadcast while watching a film or documentary I can feel the tears building upin my eyes. This never happens for any other speaker or politician & is quite extraordinary.
The historian, A J P Taylor,in his book "English History 1914-1945", published by the Oxford University Press, called Churchill "the saviour of his country" & so he was. But more than just HIS country.
Roy Jenkins previously wrote a huge biography of William Gladstone & until he began work on Churchill's biography, Jenkins thought that Gladstone had been our greatest ever PM. After working on the Churchill biography, however, he came to the conclusion that Churchill was our greatest PM. Frankly, I tend to think that Gladstone was overrated but I concur with Jenkins's view about Sir Winston Churchill. He was a soldier, adventurer, journalist, literary giant, statesmen of the greatest magnitude & gifted artist. I doubt that we will ever produce another leader like him.
Sir Winston Churchill's funeralin 1965 is said to have brought the greatest numbers of monarchs, presidents & PMs togetherin one place until the funeral of the late Pope John Paul II (another towering giant) according to an article on the BBC website.
I have never read Jenkin's biography of Gladstone although I have read his biography of President Roosevelte which was a far slimmer volume.
Highly recommended biography about the man who was voted the Greatest Briton of all timein 2002.
Sir Winston - By: A reader, 13 Nov 2008 Sir Winston. One of the great heros of our country. This book should be read by all school children, why are they reading shakespear when we have the ultimate hero.
A master of politics & war. Sir Winston will always be my hero. This book will give you a super account of the mans life.
The dullest book about a national hero I've ever read - By: Mr. A. M. Bayliss, 03 Nov 2008 
This book was like wading through treacle! So much time was taken up with unimportant things that i lost interest fairly smartish. If you want to read a book about Churchill, go for 'In the footsteps of Churchill' by Prof Richard Holmes. It's so much easier to read & concentrates on the things that really matter about the great man & not obscure speeches he madein 1910 which seem to fascinate Jenkins so much
A very interesting book - By: Jan Jensen, 19 Feb 2008 A biography written by a political insighter. Very readable. Minor mistake on the election periodin the Weimar republic. Can be recommended if you want to read more on Churchill otherwise the best short biography is Bests: "Churchill: A studyin greatness".
